This research core provides veterinary nurse support for the Conte Center for Neuroscience Research (CCNR), operates a survival surgery, and manages regulatory compliance for the CCNR. It comprises 75% time for two veterinary nurses. The surgical component of the core provides and operates a survival surgery that is used for all of our surgical procedures on non-human primates, as well as some smaller animals. The veterinary nursing component of the core manages all animal welfare and health issues for all species used in the research of the CCNR. This includes environmental enrichment for non-human primates, daily health checks for all species, and serving as the interface between the UCSF veterinarians and the animal husbandry technicians. The regulatory component involves assisting in the preparation of animal protocols for approval by the IACUC, managing the pre- and post-surgical documentation that is required by the IACUC, and conducting regular inspections of the laboratories to ensure that we are in compliance in the event of an unannounced inspection from the IACUC or the USDA.